Adrinette
by LeMinaChan
Summary: I didn't know what to title this: Marinette has just about had it. Cloe has pulled the last straw and has dumped steaming hot coffee all over the front of her t-shirt. Feeling embarrassed and betrayed by her classmates, she retreats home; only for Adrien Agreste to follow.
1. Chapter 1

Marinette has just about had it.

Cloe smirks haughtily in her direction from across the room, and nudges Sabrina next to her with her elbow to gain her attention. The class who had just been bursting with energy and volume is abnormally silent as the dark-haired girl silently makes her way towards the middle aisle. Marinette's face is bright red, her arms covering what she could of the giant wet stain on the front of her shirt, but there was no hiding it. Everyone could see the lining of her bra from the outside of her coffee-stained shirt, which had been hurriedly dabbed at with a few cafeteria napkins to no avail.

Marinette looks to Alya as she approaches her seat, and her best friend gives her an apologetic glance, then a small smile. Marinette attempts to smile back, if only everyone's eyes hadn't been glued to her once she walked in.

"Look what the cat dragged in."

Marinette turns an angry eye towards the front of the room, where Cloe has stood from her seat, arms crossed and hip popped. The pig-tailed girl glares, then turns away and faces Alya with eyes closed.

"I've had enough crap, Cloe. Back off." She barely mumbles loud enough for the blonde girl to hear, plopping down into her seat. It wasn't even worth calling her out for being the culprit behind this entire mess- Marinette had learned by now that Cloe always twists things to go her way, and it would only lead to more trouble than this is all worth. She could probably get permission to call home for a spare change of clothes, or wear her gym clothes for the last two hours.

"What, cat got your tongue? Finally too chicken to stand up to me?"

"She said back off, Cloe. This has nothing to do with you- or any of you." Alya speaks up, sending a pointed look at Cloe, then her gaze spreads to the entire classroom. "Let Marinette deal with it, it's not like she _wanted_ coffee spilled on her at lunch."

"Are you sure she didn't spill it on herself?" Cloe stubbornly continues, looking down at her nails for inspection. "Have you seen the girl? She literally trips over nothing- it's not hard to believe that the klutz would fumble with a cup of coffee."

Sabrina feigns to fumble with an imaginary cup in her hands, then makes a stupid surprised facial expression as she pretends she had spilled it on herself, and the two snicker.

"Cloe-" A male voice begins, but gets cut off.

"That is uncalled for! _You_ were the one that spilled the cup on her on purpose and you know it!" Alya gets fired up, and raises from her seat, eyes aflame with rage.

"What are you gonna do about it? You have no proof that it was me, and I don't think my daddy would-"

"That's enough."

The two stop bickering at the quiet, barely audible voice. They turn around to find Marinette risen out of her seat, facing down towards the desk with both of her hands on the surface.

Adrien turns to face her with concerned eyes."Marinette, I-"

"I said _that's enough!"_ Marinette lifts her head, and glares over at Cloe. "I've had enough. _I'm done_. With _all_ of you!" Her bluebell eyes sweep from one end of the room to the other, and Marinette finds her eyes accidentally lock with Adrien's, and she rips them away. _Here goes the end of my social life._ The dark-haired girl can't help but think to herself.

"Can all anyone ever do is watch? You all know that what Cloe is doing is wrong! Yet you all stand here, every single time, and _watch_ as people are forced to stand up for themselves on their own. _We're classmates!_ And as much as I'd love if Cloe were to share the same sentiment, she doesn't. So we just watch as others get hurt, and simply wait for an akuma attack? I'm _sick and tired_ of it!"

There's a moment of thick, awkward silence that follows her small rant, until there's a small, quiet whimper.

"I-I'm going home."

No one says a thing, not even Cloe, as Marinette gathers her bag from beneath the desk, and briskly walks out the door she had entered just moments ago. For a few seconds, her classmates are frozen in their spots in awe. Then, as if he had just collected his thoughts, Adrien springs from his desk and sprints out the classroom door, assumingly to follow her. Cloe attempts to speak up to stop him, but Alya holds a hand to cover her mouth before she can do so.

And thus begins the chase.

Marinette, noting the loud footsteps behind her, turns in fear to find Adrien gaining on her.

"Marinette, wait!"

The girl finds her chest lurching for a multitude of emotions, and her gut tells her to get away as fast as possible. Following her instinct, Marinette leaps over the railing to the stairs below without thinking, and begins sprinting towards the front doors. Adrien grits his teeth angrily at himself, and follows suit over the railing.

Marinette turns her head to gauge how far he is, and it's not very far at all. Adrien reaches out to grab hold of her elbow, but she easily slips out of his hand and dukes around the corner. Knowing full well she wouldn't be able to outrun him for much longer, as she runs, Marinette looks for an alley or bush she could jump into fast enough to transform into Ladybug and get away.

"Marinette!" A pleading voice calls from her left. "Why are you running?!"

Marinette turns her head- to find Adrien's head peeking out the back window of his car, Gorilla and Stephanie in the front keeping an eye on the girl. Suddenly, a narrow alleyway catches her eye, and she quickly ducks into it, whispering "Tikki, transform moi."

The car squeals to a stop, as Adrien opens the door and runs out without thinking of how fast they were going, and follows into the alleyway he swore he saw her go into. The blonde boy can feel his heart sag when he finds no pig-tails to be found. In a fit of persistance, Adrien opens the side of his shirt to let his kwami out, and screams "Plagg, transform moi!"

Not that transforming made anything easier. As Chat Noir ascends into the sky ontop of his pole, no one that even resembled Marinette came into sight. Suddenly a flash of red crosses his eye, as if a god sent a hero to help him in his time of need. Smiling to himself for no particular reason, Chat heads off among the rooftops after his lovely Ladybug.

Ladybug felt her pounding heart rate begin to slow as she swung away from that alleyway. If she had waited even a second or two, Adrien would have caught her- and worse, he would have found out Ladybug's true identity. There was no deciding which outcome would have been worse- if Adrien found out the identity of Ladybug, Marinette couldn't possibly stand going back to school.

"My Lady!"

Ladybug jolts out of her thoughts at the sudden shout near her, and loses her balance on her yoyo, landing on a building nearby and rolling on her side to a slow stop. Groaning from the sharp pain up her side, Ladybug looks up only to find a familiar cat smirking down at her.

"Wasn't the most graceful of landings, but beautiful all the same, LB."

Ladybug merely glares up at him for a few moments, then jumps up onto her feet, pointedly ignoring the hand Chat holds out for her to take. Brushing off the dust and reclaiming the string to her yo-yo, she spares him a glance. "Seems a bit early for you to be out, Chaton. What's the special occasion?"

"I could say the same to you, my Lady." Chat smiles, extending his pipe in order to lean on it, his hands tucked under his chin holding onto the metal pole as he admired his Ladybug. "You, me, both here are the same place? It must be destiny."

"More like a coincidence." Ladybug crosses her arms, and simply looks down at her partner. "If you don't mind, I'm going to head home. We don't patrol until around four, and I'd like to change clothes."

"Hold on, Lovebug." Chaton reaches out and grabs hold of his partner's elbow just as she was about to throw her yoyo. "I need your help with something first. Would you mind?"

Ladybug sighs, and turns back towards him. "What is it? This had better be something serious and not another one of your-"

"It's a-a friend of mine, Adrien. I happened to see him in this alleyway a few blocks away, and I asked him what happened. There's this girl in his class, Marinette, who ran off from school. He said that she told him she was going home, but disappeared halfway there. Please, you've got to help me- I mean him find her. I sent Adrien to check the streets with his driver, but I've got no other options."

Ladybug feels herself tense up as soon as he speaks her real name. She can't help but internally marvel at the fact that _Adrien Agreste_ was willing to go to such dramatic lengths to find her. But she manages to cough into her fist to hide her surprise, and digs in her brain for a way out of this.

"Marinette? Dark hair, pigtails, pink pants and black blazer?"

Chaton beams. "That's the one. F-From what Adrien told me. Have you seen her anywhere recently?"

"Y-Yeah..." Ladybug reaches behind her neck to scratch the back of her head in nervousness. "Totally. Just before I came around here, I saw her enter her home. I-She's fine."

Chat can't help but blink in confusion until the entirely of what Ladybug had just stated settled in his brain. Despite the wack coincidence, his smile brightens at the thought that even if it wasn't on purpose, she was watching out for Mari.

"Well then..." Chat then scratches the back of his head, feeling awkward for panicking over something that seemed so small in retrospect. He should have gone to her house before bothering LB. "Sorry for freaking out, then. I-I guess I'll go let Adrien know."

However, he couldn't help but get back in character, and reach an arm around Ladybug's shoulder and whispering in her ear: "Then we can spend some time together before patroling."

The blonde is cut off by a blaring blinking sound, and LB smirks at the perfect timing, sliding from underneath his arm and pointing at her miraculous fastened in her ear. "Sorry to burst your bubble kitty, but I've got to go. Wouldn't want to change back and embarrass myself." She manages a quick wave as she jogs to the edge of the building, throwing and fastening her yoyo on a streetlight. "See you later, Chaton!" And suddenly a blur of red whizzes by, and his Lovebug has disappeared.

Chat, left waving as he gazes after his idol, unable to feel completely lonely when she leaves as she leaves an impression of pure amazement, integrity and beauty in her wake. Somewhat content, Chat's mind wanders back to his original dilema. Sure, Marinette most likely made it home safetly after ditching him in that alley. It wasn't hard to believe she could have climed that rockwall in record time after seeing the things she could do in gym class. But there's no way that she's fine.

Determined, Chaton drops down into another abandoned alley behind a dumpster, and instructs his kwami to decloak him. Adrien heads out, turning right towards the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

* * *

 **A/N Hello there! I know, this is much different from the stuff I usually write, and I can feel some of my follower's disappointment for watching a show for smalls. But what can I say? I watch for the ship, that's pretty much it. I'm just waiting for a reveal, that's all.**

 **Anyway, let's hope I actually finish this rather than abandoning it because _I totally have never done that before._**

 **Until next time, my filthy human toilets~!**

 **Mina**


	2. Chapter 2

Upon arriving safely home and in her room, Marinette commands for Tikki to uncloak her, and the pig-tailed girl collapses on her sofa.

"Are you alright, Marinette?"

Mari only groans in response to her kwami, burying her face further into the pillows. She knows she has to change out of her coffee stained clothing, but if she were being perfectly honest, all Marinette wanted to do was sleep. Dealing with everyone just those moments ago; from her classmates to Adrien, then Chat Noir... it's tuckered her out.

There's a light pat on the top of her head. "I know you're probably tired, but you have to change clothes, and tell your parents that you've come home, Marinette."

Mari rolls her head to the side to meet Tikki's eyes. "Do I have to? Can't I just sleep until tomorrow?"

The kwami shakes her head, grabbing one of Marinette's fingers in a hopeless attempt to get her up. "You can sleep right after you change clothes, and tell your parents that you're here, okay?"

Marinette lets out something that half a yawn and half a groan, rolling herself off of the furniture in the direction of her closet on the other side of the room. As her main objective is to get back to sleeping as soon as possible, she opts for a plain black t-shirt and a pair of strawberry pink shorts that would be comfortable to sleep in, before headed downstairs to meet her parents. Tikki flies herself into the pocket of Marinette's shirt as she lifts the hatch to the stairs leading downstairs.

"Mama! Papa!" Marinette calls down, deciding she didn't want to take the unnecessary effort to go downstairs if they could hear her from there.

"Marinette?" She hears her father respond, and soon after he appears at the bottom of the stairs, flour powdered all over his face and wiping his hands on his apron. "I didn't see you come in. Why aren't you at school?"

"I was feeling really unwell, Papa, I'm sorry. Do you mind if I take a nap for a little bit?"

"Sure, just be sure to come down for medicine if you wake up still feeling sick! Hope you feel better!" Marinette recognizes her mother's voice from the other side of the bakery, and Marinette can't help but smile at her kindness.

"Thank you, Mama, Papa. I'll be going to sleep now." She waves a few fingers at her father, who gives her two thumbs up in response before she slowly and quietly shuts the hatch. Sighing of relief that they bought her excuse, Marinette drags herself to the stairs this time, climbing up and into her bed.

"I'm really sorry about what happened today, Marinette." Tikki comforts soothingly as Marinette crawls under her covers. "And I hope Adrien knows you're okay."

"Mm... Adrien..." Marinette sleepily mumbles, her gaze slowly drifting to the corkboard beside her bed, and her eyes linger on the magazine cutout of Adrien in the very center of the board. "I hope he's not mad. I'd hate for him to be mad at me, Tikki."

"Enough of that." Tikki flies up, grabbing the covers and pulling them up to Marinette's chin. "After dealing with Cloe and everyone, you deserve some rest. Especially since you have to go on patrol soon, you need to charge up your energy. I'll go find something to eat and charge up myself."

"There should be a few cookies on my desk," Marinette mumbles as she turns onto her side, facing the corkboard and Adrien's gorgeous face. "Make sure Mama and Papa don't see you if they come up."

"Night, Marinette." Tikki plants a chaste kiss to the pig-tailed girl's forehead and disappears to her desk below.

Marinette closes her eyes for a few seconds and then opens them again to meet Adrien's eyes. She sadly sighs, lifting a single finger to stroke the magazine cutout. _'I really do hope Adrien isn't mad at me for running away. It's amazing that he even chased me down in the first place... That was embarrassing. There was probably a lot of people watching. I hope this doesn't end up online. I'd hate to ruin his reputation...'_ With these negative thoughts swirling in her head, Marinette somehow finds her way to sleep.

Meanwhile, Adrien has only just arrived at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, peeking inside the large window between the display cakes in hope that Marinette would possibly be there. With no luck, he enters the door with a chime and heads over to the counter, where Marinette's mother is cleaning a bit.

"Hello, Miss Dupain-Cheng." Adrien waves as he approaches and her mother looks up with a sweet smile, which quickly morphs into an expression of surprise, then an even bigger grin invades her face.

"Adrien, dear! I was wondering when you'd return back; the last time I saw you was Christmas." Her smile turns a little downwards as if she had just remembered something. "You must be here to see Marinette. She just arrived home, saying she was feeling sick. Oh!"

The woman immediately perks up, then jogs to the other end of the bakery. Adrien gets up onto his tiptoes to see what she was doing, but before he knew it, she was returning with a tray full of fresh, steaming chocolate chip cookies.

"Would you mind taking this up to her room for me? I would, but..." She puts a hand to her lower back. "I'm getting older. Old woman's Bad back."

Adrien smiles, taking the tray from the mother's hands. "For sure, Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you, Adrien!" She waves him off, and he turns around, heading towards the stairs lined against the wall of the bakery. Marinette's father appears next to her mother, and her mother leans on her husband, and barely whispers "Ah, young love." quiet enough that the blonde would not hear.

Unable to open the hatch due to his hands being full with the tray, Adrien balances the tray between his right hand and on top of his knee and uses his left hand to knock. He manages to hear some light bustling on the other side, so he readjusts the tray into both of his hands and awaits for Marinette to open the hatch.

Tikki, hearing the knocks, is nearly scared to death as she drops the cookie in her grasp. Tikki peeks up to Marinette's bed, where she stays fast asleep. Tikki flies near the hatch, and to the best of her ability, imitates Marinette's voice as she calls out "Yes? Who is it?"

"Uh, it's Adrien? I was just wondering if you were okay. And your mother sent up cookies! Fresh from the oven!"

Marinette, as is woken up by a spell, rolls over in bed, then sits up and rubs at her eyes. "Did someone say Adrien?"

"Uh, yeah? It's me!" Marinette hears from the hatch on the other side of the room, and suddenly it's as if she was never asleep. She screeches at an inaudible pitch, losing her balance on the edge of the bed and falling down onto the floor in front of the desk.

"What was that? Are you okay?" Adrien calls, concerned. Tikki's eyes snap to Marinette's, wide and concerned, confused as to what to do. Marinette's eyes are just as wide as Tikki's, and she crawls across the floor towards her kwami hovering over the hatch.

"Um, yeah? I'm fine, A-Adrien..." Marinette calls to the blonde on the other side of the door. "You can go back to school. I'm okay."

There's a pause of silence, and Marinette's heart almost stops, nearly convinced that he actually left. Then there's a hard pound on the door, causing both Tikki and Marinette to jump in fright.

"You and I both know that's a lie. There's no way you're fine, not after that."

Marinette gulps. He was right.

She opens her mouth to respond with another dismissal, but she finds her jaw opening and shutting over and over again, unable to get the words off of her tongue.

Tikki looks to her miraculous holder in concern once more and recognizes the action. The small kwami nods and swoops down to open the hatch. Marinette nearly falls over herself trying to catch the small ladybug, but Tikki was too quick, and the light pink hatch, with some difficulty, swings open, revealing widened green eyes.

Upon the hatch quickly swinging open, Adrien quickly realized that he must have freaked her out by getting angry. He awkwardly scratches the back of his neck with his free hand. "A-Ah. Sorry about that. Mind if I come in?"

Marinette, breathless, can only nod in response. Then, realizing what that meant in her head, quickly shifts into very exaggerated shaking of her head. Adrien nods to himself, setting the plate of warm cookies onto the floor as he climbs up the rest of the stairs. Tikki is nowhere to be found once the hatch closes behind him.

Silence.

Marinette scratches the inside of her wrist, looking everywhere but the blonde towering in front of her. What in the heck was he doing here? Mariette was convinced he had given up once she disappeared in that alleyway. Matter-of-fact, Chat Noir told her that he'd let Adrien know that she was alright. So, either Chat didn't keep his word, or...

Marinette steals a glance at Adrien, that was meant to be sneaky as he checked out how she had changed her room, but his gaze was already rooted on her. Once they make eye contact, Marinette's eyes fall back down to her hands in her lap.

 _Or_ Adrien came to check on her despite Chat's reassurance. The pig-tailed girl decides that she doesn't like either much.

"So-"

"I-"

The two begin speaking at once, their eyes snapping to each other, then trailing off to somewhere around the room.

"You go ahead-"

"No, you-"

They make eye contact again, and Adrien lets out a loud sigh. His gaze stays trained down to the pig-tailed girl seated on the floor in front of him, directing her eyes everywhere but him. He finally decides to crouch down in front of her and tilts his head, waiting a few seconds for her to meet his eyes. When she finally does so, he parts his lips.

"Are you really okay, Marinette?"

At the question, Marinette's eyes instantly fall back to her hands in her lap, her fingers nervously fumbling around each other. It was both a yes or no question, yet at the same time, there was no way she could answer with a simple yes or no. So, to try and avoid the situation, Marinette keeps her eyes planted in her lap.

"Hey," A voice coaxes from above her head. "You know I'm not gonna leave until you answer. Though, judging from the looks of the place..." There's a teasingly long pause. "I doubt you'd want me to leave so soon."

Marinette finally raises her head at the phrase, confused at what he meant by that. Reaching his eyes, she finds them not trained on hers anymore-thankfully- but his eyes dart across the room behind her. The pig-tailed girl turns to find out what in her room could have possibly caught his attention in this situation, only to scream at an inaudible pitch when she makes eye contact with Adrien again. The many Adriens hung up on her wall, that is.

Marinette scrambles to her feet and all but rips the photos and magazine cutouts down, slamming then down onto her desk, and her face grows heated. It's one thing to have seen them on TV, but even more, embarrassing when he sees them in person.

Her quick breathing hitches at an angelic sound, laughter from behind her that could only belong to Adrien Agreste. Her face red without a doubt, Marinette slightly turns to see Adrien keeled over, wiping a fake tear from his eye as he laughs.

As he notices Marinette staring him down with widened eyes, he paces his way over to the desk and pats her shoulder comfortingly.

"It's alright, Marinette." He says with a chuckle, even going as far as to reach for a photo and inspect it. It was a photo from a few months back in the winter, Adrien was sitting on a snow-covered bench in the park adorning an emerald green coat, black fluffy earmuffs, and the blue scarf he received on his birthday. He had his head tilted back, with a slight smile on his lips, the snow kissing and melting on his skin. It was one of Marinette's favorite pictures of him, mostly because she knew it wasn't a planned photo.

Alya and Marinette were headed to the bakery for a sleepover when they found Adrien alone on the bench. Alya was about to go invite him to come since he looked so lonely, but Marinette stopped her for a second, and as creepy as it sounds, Marinette took a picture of him, then they invited him to their sleepover. He agreed and ended up explaining to them about his father kicking him out for the night.

Later on, they were looking at photos on Marinette's phone, and without realizing it she had swiped to the photo of him she just took. Him being a model and having done this a thousand times told Marinette that it was a really good photo, and recommended that she submit it to his photographer. And what do you know, in a week's time, her photo was on the cover of thousands of magazines across France. However, the one Adrien holds in his hands is the original copy printed right off of Marinette's phone. Adrien smiles at the memory, while Marinette turns pink remembering the embarrassment of having her photo found.

"Oh god," Are the first words uttered out of Marinette's mouth pretty much since Adrien has entered the room, and she bangs her head against the table. "I am so sorry, this is so creepy, I'm really sorry-"

Before Adrien could reassure her again that it was all okay, there's a high-pitched cackle from outside Marinette's window. The pair furrowing their eyebrows, Marinette heads towards the trap door to the roof to see what the fuss was.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir! Come out come out wherever you are!"

"Oh no," Marinette watches as the figure of someone speeds down the block, and she turns to Adrien. "Someone's been akumatized!"

"What?! Uh, I guess I'll go hide then," Adrien starts heading towards the door back down to the bakery, intending to find somewhere to go transform, but finds it already flipped open, Marinette's parents occupying the space.

"Marinette, Adrien! We just found out there's an akumatized victim nearby." Her mother tells the two calmly.

"We think it'd be safer for you both to stay in here, for now, make sure to lock the door to the roof, and we'll block this door until Ladybug and Chat Noir show up. Stay safe!"

"Wait, Papa!" Marinette yells out, but it's too late as her parents duck down and shut the door, locking it from the outside. Marinette nervously looks over at her desk, where the plate of cookies is, where Tikki was just before. This isn't good. She can't transform with Adrien here, and she can't transform outside on the patio either because someone else could see her, and Adrien would definitely hear her.

Marinette peeks over at Adrien, almost at the same time he does, himself going through the same dilemma. With both of them trapped in the same room, neither can transform, and Chat Noir and Ladybug won't be able to save the day.

"So uh," Adrien starts, leaning against the sofa. "I guess we're stuck in here until Ladybug arrives."

"Or Chat Noir." Marinette interrupts. They both look down at the floor.

Adrien begins to tap his shoe on the floor, and as time goes on the tapping increases pace.

"That's it!" Adrien startles Marinette by jumping up, and he quickly turns to her. "Marinette, you have to promise me that whatever you're about to see, you will keep it a secret. And I trust you, so you have to keep your word, it's for the greater good. Is that okay?"

"Y-Yeah sure, I promise. What is it?"

Adrien closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and looks back into Marinette's eyes. Without breaking eye contact, he shouts "Plagg, transform moi!"

It takes Marinette a while to actually believe what she's seeing, a strange black substance surrounds Adrien that glows green. But, once his fingers brush past his eyes, and the mask takes form, Marinette can only watch the rest of his transformation in shock.

"I need you to stay inside, where it's safe," Chat Noir says once his transformation is complete, walking towards Marinette as he takes her shoulders and leads her to her computer chair to sit. "I have to go find Ladybug so we can save the day again." Once the pig-tailed girl is seated, Chat salutes with two fingers, a wink, then runs towards the trap door to outside.

"I'll be back in two shakes of a cat's tail, Princess! Don't think our conversation from earlier is over!"

And like that, he leaps out the door. Marinette gulps in air, unaware that she hadn't been breathing since she saw his green eyes behind the mask.

Adrien and Chat Noir. The same person?

Marinette sinks to the floor, and just in time, Savior Tikki flies over to her miraculous holder.

"Well, that took a turn I didn't expect," Tikki says, swallowing the rest of the cookie in her hand. "But we can worry about it later. Right now we need to save Paris and the akumatized victim! Let's go, Marinette!"

"R-Right. Paris. Save. Akuma. Chat." Marinette stumbles over he words, rising from the floor, and nodding at Tikki. "Tikki, transform moi!"

 **A/N**

 **It's,,, been a while, hasn't it? I was reading through all the reviews that were left, and I just felt so bad that I didn't have another chapter for you guys, so I grinded this 3-day weekend to get it finished. It's not as fine-tuned as I wish I could have made it, but at least we're getting somewhere!**

 **Until next time, my filthy human toilets~!**

 **Mina**


	3. Chapter 3

As Ladybug swings across the rooftops in the direction of all the ruckus and chaos, she's surprised she hasn't fallen yet. Her mind was still abuzz from what Chat Noir had just revealed to her.

All this time...

"Gah!" Ladybug had spoken too soon, as she loses her footing on the next roof as she jumps. Her mind had been horribly occupied with thoughts unrelated to the akuma attack. She _kissed_ Adrien. Adrien has been flirting with _her_ all this time. Adrien proclaimed his _love_ for _her._

Ladybug feels herself falling, but instead of easily catching herself with her yo-yo, she oddly closes her eyes and lets herself fall. _'No,'_ she thinks. ' _Adrien proclaimed his love for_ Ladybug. Not me.'

There's suddenly a quick tug on Ladybug's wrist, and instead of landing on the concrete ground that she expected of the alleyway she was about to fall into, but rather cushioned between someone's arms and their chest. Ladybug peels her eyes open, to meet the face of the very person she was fretting over.

"Falling for me already, M'lady?" He jokes, handing her the spotted yo-yo she must have dropped.

She wanted it to be normal. She had the perfect comeback, but it refuses to leave her mouth. She's left tongue-tied, red in the face, and unable to look Chat in his impossibly green eyes.

"Sorry." She manages to mumble, taking steps away from him in the direction they were headed. She takes a moment to breathe and calm down before speaking again. "We need to focus on catching that akumatized victim.

"The Lady's orders!" He cheerfully responds, stepping beside her and motioning for her to lead the way. She takes a deep breathe again, then throws her yo-yo, which thankfully doesn't miss this time. She doesn't waste any time to get going, her new goal to be as normal as possible for the upcoming fight. She can't risk Adrien suspecting anything, or even worse, screwing up and letting Hawkmoth win.

"Lovebug? You okay up there?" Ladybug hears a call from behind her.

 _Just like Adrien, to be so worried about people he cares about_ "I'm fine." Her response comes out more angry than she had intended, and she hears Chat drawl out in a whistle.

"Okay then, don't tell me now." He easily catches up to her and tries to catch her eye, but she avoids his gaze and speeds up her pace. "There's definitely something wrong. I can't have my Lady stressed out, now can't I?"

Ladybug sees it best to just not answer, and focus on coming up with a plan. They were quickly approaching the akumatized victim who had stopped at the Eiffel Tower, and needed a gameplan sooner than later. Ladybug searches around for any ideas, unfortunately at a disadvantage that she didn't know what kind of power the akuma had, or what their objective was.

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug shouts for her partner to catch up, and once he reaches her side, she points at an icecream truck down in the plaza.

"I need you to get that umbrella from the ice cream cart for me." She tells him as the umbrella blinks in black and red in her vision, then turns to look at Chat. "I'll distract the villain to give you more time, and to get more information about them. Bring it to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, and I'll make sure you're not seen. Call me once you get up there, and I'll meet you."

Chat takes longer than he really should have to look back and forth between Ladybug's bluebell eyes, searching for some kind of hidden or underlying emotion, but sighs out of his nose when he finds none. He nods, and gives Ladybug a confident smirk.

"Whatever the Lady requests. Consider it done."

The two share a nod of agreeance and leap off the building to complete their respective tasks. Ladybug swigs around towards the Eiffel Tower, just as the akumatized villain turns to catch the bug whizzing past.

"Well, if it isn't Ladybug." They say smugly, their voice masked by an autotuned, robotic voice. "Decided you didn't need your mangy cat, or are you planning to attack Nautica from behind? Well, it's no use, bug."

"Why are you doing this?" Ladybug questions once she lands, a rail below the villain. They only cackle in response.

"I'm going to find out who you and Chat Noir are once and for all! Everyone's dying to know, and Nautica going to find out today! Nautica will have Nautica's story- and your Miraculouses!"

Ladybug gulps, but thankfully her yo-yo buzzes on her side before she can think about it too hard, signaling that Chat was in place.

"I'd love to stay and chat with you about that, maybe even tell you my secret identity, but unfortunately I have to run. Seeya!"

The spotted hero waves teasingly, tossing her yo-yo upwards on the tower, circling around the building as she ascends. Chat greets her at the very peak with a smile, twirling the yellow and red umbrella over his shoulder.

"Were you perhaps planning a romantic date, Mary Poppins style?"

"Not exactly." She smirks back, extending her hand for the umbrella. Chat twirls it once more between his paws, before tossing it to his lady in waiting. Ladybug ties the string of her yo-yo around her ankle a few times, fastening the yo-yo to the umbrella handle. She turns back to Chat, eyes fiery and cogs spinning.

"Hold on to this for me, if you will." She holds out the umbrella, which Chat gladly takes, but not before taking the chance to brush their fingers past each other. Failing to keep her raging blush under control, Ladybug calls for her Lucky Charm. From the sky, falls a roll of duct tape. In place of her yo-yo, Ladybug fastens the roll of tape to her side.

"Now," she begins, whirling around to face Chat. "You're gonna have to trust me on this one, okay?"

Chat's smirk loosens from his lips for a second, before he beams from ear to ear. "For you my Lady, you always have my faith and trust."

"Good," She says, taking a few steps away from him. "Hold onto that tight for me."

And before Chat could say any retort, reassurance, or protest, Ladybug steps off the edge on the tower, and the string follows her quick plummet down. Anticipating the strong pull that was to come, Chat spears the umbrella down into the metal of the tower, and wraps his claws as tight as he can around the pole.

As Ladybug falls from the very top, she can get a better view of the destruction the akumatized victim had really caused. Phones, cameras, anything with a capture function was floating out of people's homes towards the Eiffel Tower, to a large bubble containing all the devices. The more that enter, the larger the screen above it gets- displaying all the people of Paris. Many faces get crossed out and rejected, but girls with dark hair and blue eyes, as well as blonde boys with green eyes, are selected and compared to pictures of Ladybug and Chat. Ladybug wants to gasp, but her breath gets lost in her throat.

At this rate, they might actually find them out.

Ladybug shakes her head to rid of her fruitless thoughts- she had to focus on saving the akumatized victim, that had to take priority right now. Having made up her mind, the spotted hero lands safely on the ground beside the tower.

"So nice of you to join Nautica again, Ladybug!" Someone calls from the railings above her. "What, no kitty cat to help you out?"

"You leave Chat Noir out of this!" Ladybug spits with more venom than she thought a Ladybug possible. "This is between you and me."

Nautica whole-heartedly laughs at the retort. "Good, just how Nautica wants to fight. Come at Nautica then, and let Nautica squash you." Ladybug grits her teeth, and leaps straight at the villain. Haphazardly, as Nautica is able to catch her, and reaches around her waist. "Did you bring this just for me? How sweet." Nautica unfastens the duct tape from her waist, and with must struggling against Nautica's strong arms, Ladybug's arms and legs are taped together, and Ladybug is cast onto the railing beside the villain.

Nautica merely glances at the hero beside her. "Turns out you're just a useless bug without your little boyfriend here to save you. Look at you! You're completely and utterly a fool to come at me alone!"

"But I'm not alone. Chat Noir, now!"

Suddenly, and to Nautica's horror, Ladybug starts flying upwards by her ankle, which she had just realized had been attached to a string. And, further to her horror, Nautica finds her own legs following, that Ladybug had somehow managed to attach within her own duct tape binding. Nautica screams, and kicks and reaches for Ladybug in order to escape, but with her legs bound and her arms too short, all of her attempted attacks fail. Eventually the two reach the top, where Nautica finally finds Chat Noir, already busying himself using his Cataclysm to undo the duct tape around her arms.

Before Nautica can even move, or even blink, Ladybug snatches the mask off of Nautica's face, and breaks it in two on her knee. With a quick "Time to deevilize" and "Miraculous Ladybug!", Nautica blacks out.

Chat Noir extends his fist to Ladybug, with a friendly smile to congratulate her on her ingenious plan. However, Ladybug looks at the hand beside her for far longer than what was normal. This hand, she had been fist bumping and holding- This person she had been beside the whole time. How could he possibly be-

"Ladybug?"

Ladybug busts out of her inner thoughts, and quickly offers her partner a friendly smile. "Good work, pound it!" She finally bumps his fist with her own, then a high pitched beep sounds from her ears. "I'd better get going. Bug out!"

And once again, she whizzes past him before he can say goodbye.


End file.
